Kosher milk comes to China

The first ton of the milk, which is organic and cholev yisroel, a stricter kosher standard acceptable to ultra-Orthodox Jews, hit the market last week, according to chabad.org.

Produced under the supervision of Chabad-Lubavitch of Beijing, the milk “meets European and American health standards,” the Web site states.

That assurance might alleviate concerns about tainted milk that have been at the center of several recent food scandals in the People’s Republic.

In the fall of 2008, more than 300,000 Chinese babies were sickened and six died after drinking tainted infant formula. A Chinese middleman company was discovered buying milk from farmers watering it down to save money, spiking it with melamine to fool quality control agents and selling it to manufacturers of infant formula.

Top company officials were sentenced to death, but public distrust of the dairy industry remains strong. Reporters investigating the incident discovered that such dangerous adulteration of milk products had been going on for years.

The new kosher milk, which is also supervised by Rabbi Padwa of the London rabbinical court, will be produced monthly. It will be available in eight areas where most of China’s 10,000 Jews are found, including the city of Shanghai and Hong Kong.